Sickness, Sledding & Syrup

Well, we've had a fun couple of weeks. Porter got a stomach virus (probably from ECFE). It started the day he was at my parents house. They were watching him because our daycare provider's mother died. He was sick a few times at their house and really just didn't feel well all day. I was working that weekend. Jeff had him the next day and he was still not feeling that great. That night Jeff started not feeling too well, so I stayed home from work the next day. My parents called that morning and said they were both up all night throwing up and having diarrhea (sorry for that). I felt really bad that Porter got them sick, but hey, what can you do? At this point Connor and I both still felt fine and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Jeff stayed home from work on Monday and on Tuesday with Porter while I worked. Porter was still having diarrhea (sorry again) and was getting a really sore butt. Jeff said he got the gold star for the lunchtime diaper change on Tuesday. Jeff was only sick for a couple of days, and luckily not to the extent that my parents were sick. I think now Porter is finally back to normal and his poor butt is mostly healed. Connor mostly escaped, though on Wednesday last week he threw up on the bus just before it arrived at our house. Poor kid. I hope he's not labeled now as "the kid who threw up on the bus"! He assured me that Jonah threw up on the bus once too, so at least he has company. He threw up 2 more times within an hour and then was pretty much fine. I think I dodged this bullet completely. Must be my superior immune system!! There aren't too many infected body fluids I haven't been exposed to over the course of my life thus far.

My 2 sick boys:

Cheese:

So, in the midst of all the sickness, we were able to get outside and enjoy the frigid Minnesota climate. Porter seemed to like his first sledding experience and said "Wheee!" when we were going down our itty bitty slope in the backyard. He really likes being outside, or maybe it's just that he was glad to be doing what his big brother was doing instead of being left behind. I included a photo of Connor in the same hat/coat from January 2004 for fun.

Porter 15 mos:

Connor 10 mos:

The third part of my entry title refers to my foiled attempt to get Jeff REAL maple syrup. I made a grocery store trip last night after putting Porter to bed. It was so peaceful to be in the store Sunday evening with hardly anyone else there. I almost enjoyed myself. I spent a few minutes comparing prices and finally settled on the big glass jug of REAL maple syrup. Finally I'm hope lugging the groceries in when WHAM the handles break, the bag drops, the bottle breaks, the syrup oozes all over everything. Right on the garage floor. $@%*!!!! And the part that really pisses me off...I'm out $16 with nothing to show but a sticky driveway. Guess he'll have to deal with the FAKE stuff for a while.


Finally, Porter had his 15 month check up last week. He was down on his weight, due to his illness. He's now 23 lbs 9.8oz which is between the 25th-50th%. Last time he was 50th-75th%. I'm sure he'll make a comeback though, he's a good eater. He was not however thrilled with being weighed or getting shots!

Talk to the hand:

Christmas photos

I'm kind of glad the holidays are behind us. We had a really nice Christmas and spent lots of time with my family, which was great. It's just all the stress of making sure that you've bought all the presents you are supposed to that makes me feel crazy. Also, I was working a lot before Christmas, and then we had a small Christmas celebration at our house on Christmas Day, so just cleaning and getting ready felt a little crazy. Luckily Jeff had some time off, and really did a great job of getting all the food bought and prepared. He made a delicious leg of lamb, red wine mint jelly, roasted potatoes and fennel and a really yummy pannetone/chocolate mascarpone trifle. I'm really glad he loves to cook and is good at it. It takes a lot of the heat off me! My mom also pulled through by bringing a great salad and some shrimp for an appetizer. We got together at my brother Tom & Jenny's house on Christmas Eve with everyone, so there were 20 of us. We had a really nice time, but weren't able to stay all that late because Porter needed to go to bed. Oh well, he'll be able to last longer in a few years!




Connor got a Wii for Christmas, and was pretty excited, but I think he might have liked the SpongeBob toothbrush he got in his stocking better! We've been having fun playing the Wii and are starting to figure out how to play Lego Indiana Jones.

We went out with a group of neighbors for New Years Eve, and I told Connor he was going to have a babysitter. He said "Why?" I said, because we are going out to dinner". He said, "Can I come?". I said, "No, it's just grown-ups". He said, "Why, does everything have booze in it?". That kid cracks me up. Actually they ended up staying at my parents' house overnight and did great. It was really nice of my mom to do that since New Years Eve is her birthday! The kids had fun and I think Grandma and Papa really liked having them spend the night too. We had a really nice dinner at the Downtowner and hung out with neighborhood friends til around 1am or so, just long enough to ring in the New Year and suffer a tiny bit of a hangover the next day. It was nice not having to get up with kids and to sleep in a bit.

Happy 2009!